On a recent morning at a hospital in the heart of gang territory in Haiti's capital, a woman began convulsing as a doctor and two nurses raced to save her. They stuck electrodes to her chest and flipped on an oxygen machine while keeping their eyes on a computer screen that reflected a dangerously low oxygen level of 84%. No one knew what was wrong with her. Even more worrisome, the Doctors Without Borders hospital in the Cite Soleil slum was running low on key medicine to treat convulsions. "The medication she really needs, we barely have," says Dr. Rachel Lavigne, a physician with the medical aid group. It's a familiar scene repeated daily at hospitals and clinics across Port-au-Prince, where life-saving medication and equipment is dwindling or altogether absent as brutal gangs tighten their grip on the capital and beyond, per the AP.
The gangs have blocked roads, forced the closure of the main international airport in early March, and paralyzed operations at the country's largest seaport, where containers filled with key supplies remain stuck. "Everything is crashing," Lavigne said. Haiti's health system has long been fragile, but it's now nearing total collapse. The violence has forced several medical institutions and dialysis centers to close, including Haiti's largest public hospital. Located in downtown Port-au-Prince, the Hospital of the State University of Haiti was supposed to reopen on April 1, but gangs have infiltrated it. One of the few institutions still operating is Peace University Hospital, located south of the shuttered airport.
Even if a hospital is open, there's sometimes little or no medical staff, as gang violence forces doctors and nurses to stay home or turn around if they encounter blocked roads manned by heavily armed men. Doctors Without Borders itself has run out of many medications used to treat diabetes and high blood pressure, and asthma inhalers are nowhere to be found in the capital, Lavigne said. Recently, five wounded people arrived at the Cite Soleil hospital after spending all night inside a public bus that couldn't move because of heavy gunfire, says Doctors Without Borders project coordinator Jacob Burns. "Cite Soleil was long the epicenter of violence," he says. "And now, violence is so widespread that it's become a problem for everyone." Much more here.
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